Hi, my first post. I feel like I'm in some deep problem. So I bought a hobie 18 a couple of months ago, or so I thought... The seller mentioned that it had a higher mast than usual, a mast from a Hobie Tiger. All well and good i thought, a bit more power might be nice. Then it turned out that the hull is only a Hobie 17. The mainsail is a fathead compared to the more triangular original sail of the 17.

So my main problem is that the boat has extreme weather helm while going upwind. It requres full concentration, strength and often both hands to keep her steady. I often have to ease the traveler like 5" (10cm) to ease the rudder pressure. I have raked the rudders as far forwards as they go, that didn't help much... I have eased the shrouds a few notches aswell to rake the mast further forwards. I'm not sure if that helped. The season is over here for me since it is to cold to sail.

Is there anyone with similar experience? Any suggestions?Should i continue to rake the mast forwards? Buy a bigger jib for counterbalance?Sell the boat to some unsuspecting poor fool like me? Cut the mast down to size, attach the right hardware, buy a real H17 main? Or buy a new mast (Sounds expensive..)Angle the rudders more forwards or backwards?

On a side note. I have a 5mm halyard for the main that runs inside the mast track. If left unsupervised during takedowns it will slide up and jam against the boltrope and the sail. Super anoying and really hard to remove.

It sounds like you've already done this, but I would make sure the rudders are raked as far forward as possible and that they are locking down properly. You may even need to re-drill the holes in the rudders to allow them to kick farther under the hull.

Also, I would suggest that you experiment with the downhaul tension. A Tiger rig should have a very powerful downhaul system (12:1 or so I would guess). Adding more downhaul tension will flatten the top of the sail, move the draft forward, and allow the top of the sail to twist open. All of these things should help to reduce the amount of pull on the rudders. Don't be afraid to put on an extreme amount of downhaul tension to help balance out the helm.

I would be careful about raking the mast too far forward because I could see that leading to problems with the bows wanting to dive when sailing downwind, especially with the extra sail area up high.

I've had a couple of 17s and I always thought they were a bit underpowered, so that sounds great to me. Although the seller shouldn't have misrepresented it. So it has pivoting centerboards instead of inserted daggerboards?You could add the Hobie Sport Cat jib to it. That would move the center of effort forward, and give you more power. Always with the more power!